our secret garden

had a wonderful time with mechelle's and grace's families in tu fang workshop today, it's our third time visit there, we called it our secret garden, it's such a great place to chill out with friends and kids during weekend. tom is really a thoughtful owner, he has recently added an ice-cream freezer in the workshop for the kids! it's so funny to see how they enjoyed ice-cream over painting!! will definitely visit tom again during this summer.

little pizza party

we had a little pizza party with all the kids yesterday! it's so fun to watch them putting the ingredients on top of the pizza and at the same time smuggling the pineapples, ham and mushrooms into their mouths!

little hoimin's (my chihuahua) hoping for some snacks!!

mui g was so focus on her job.

little chef aidan put all the bell peppers onto the pizza

so much fun to roll the dough

another pizza, the hawaiian!!!

art of food photography

it's such a sunny day today, and i had delightful lunch at amber with my good friends may and miranda , we had a nice long chat while enjoying all the great dishes! it's interesting that the restaurant is currently holding a photography competition, the winner will take home a Leica d-lux 5 camera and a voucher for amber's weekend wine lunch for two! isn't it attractive? we were lucky enough to get seated next to the window, with sufficient natural sunlight, i was able to take some nice shots! i am planning to send one of the pictures and try my luck!

signature amuse bouche- foie gras rapsberry and beetroot lollipops

duck foi gras with wine, french strawberry and shaved crispy ginger bread, very nice presentation

tomato and onion bread

bought a pack of tomato and onion bread mix and tried it out last nite. i followed the simple instruction on the bag and made the bread in just 1.5 hours! the result was surprisingly good!

papa's working hard on kneading the dough by hand

ready to put into the pre-heated oven

freshly baked tomato bread for breakfast the next day~

i put a piece of cheese and tomato on the toast and sprinkle with my favorite black pepper. what a healthy and tasty breakfast this morning!

a little treat for the kids

can't help myself playing with flour, sugar and butter instead of my iphone recently, tonight i decided to make some butter cookies for aiden to bring to school tomorrow! of course will save some for ian and anson! aiden likes mickey and minnie, so i bought a set of cookie cutter to give him a little surprise!

Ingredients:

100g softened butter
80g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
180g cake flour

25g corn flour

little chef helped to sift the cake flour together with the corn flour

anson intended to offer help!

add sugar and butter in the mixing bowl and mix well with an electric mixer

add in the egg york and mix again.

add the sifted flour in 2 to 3 additions, stir with a spatula to form a dough

knead the dough a little bit and wrap it with a plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 1 hour.

roll out dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper

cut out with the cookie cutters

bake at pre-heated oven at 170C for 20mins

see a tray of smiling mickys and minnies!! the cookies were buttery and crunchy, it was simply a joy looking at how my boys munching away the cookies...

packed and ready for aiden's best friends in school tomorrow! hooray!

cheese and egg toast

made from the bread papa baked last nite, i cut the 4 sides of a thick toast to get a square in the middle. then put a slice of cheese and place an egg on it.

baked in a toaster until the egg was set....sprinkled with some black pepper before eating.....it's so easy to make and it tasted yummy!!!!

milk bread

i love bread and i am lucky enough to have a husband who used to be a baker! it was really nice of papa who took the trouble to make some bread for the kids last nite. thanks papa!! here's the recipe to share :

ingredients:

270g bread flour
30g plain flour
5g dry active yeast
15g milk powder
40g sugar
4.5g salt
1/2 egg
125g fresh milk
75g whipping cream

the good thing about this recipe is that it uses whipping cream, it makes the bread soft and moist!

put all the ingredients in the mixing bowl, separate the yeast from sugar and salt to avoid dehydration.


put the yeast into the mixing bowl

mix all the ingredients with an electric blender until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. then place the dough in a greased mixing bowl. cover with a damp towel and allow the dough to rest for about 60 mins.

aiden was so good by offering help, he was so enthusiatic about blending the dough

take out the dough and press out the gas produced during the proof. round up and let rest for about 20 mins.
place in a loaf pan, after shaping, let the dough rise up to 2/3 full. brush with egg wash and then bake in the preheated 170C oven for 40 mins.


after much hard work, the result was a loaf of super soft and cottony bread for the kids. great work papa!